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U.S. stocks ended lower as semiconductor shares sold off sharply, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index falling 7.9% and Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Marvell, Micron, and SanDisk all sliding amid growing concern over debt-funded AI spending and a more hawkish Fed outlook. Reuters has more here.

Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly directed Meta to build “Arena,” an experimental stand-alone prediction markets app that would let users bet with points, rather than money, on future events as Meta looks to chase the fast-growing popularity of Polymarket and Kalshi. The New York Times has more here.

China’s LineShine supercomputer in Shenzhen was declared the world’s fastest, topping the U.S. system El Capitan by more than 20% and giving China the number one spot for the first time since 2017 despite relying on standard CPUs rather than Nvidia-style GPUs. The New York Times has more here.

After Betting the Firm on Anthropic, Menlo Ventures Raises Victorious $3B Fund

Image Credits: ChatGPT / TechCrunch

By Julie Bort

Menlo Ventures announced $3 billion in funds on Tuesday, the largest raise in its 50-year history, driven in large part by its AI portfolio, especially Anthropic. Its stake in the model maker is now worth about $14 billion, sources told Bloomberg.

To hear the folks at Menlo talk about it, they were white-knuckling it when they made a bet-the-firm $750 million investment in Anthropic in 2024, preemptively leading the model maker’s Series D. At the time, that round quadrupled the startup’s valuation to $18.4 billion.

While the bet itself was arguably not wildly risky, the means by which the firm raised that kind of capital was more so.

Menlo had been an early investor in the Series C, before Anthropic had a product. By 2024, long before Claude Code and Claude Mythos, the company was showing signs of success. It had landed a $4 billion deal from Amazon and was being hotly pursued by VCs, having been founded by former OpenAI researchers, including siblings CEO Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei. It was a rising-star AI company, as so many startups founded by OpenAI alum still are today.

But how Menlo raised the funds was eye-popping. In 2024, the venture world was just rebounding from the post-pandemic VC winter, with big-money firms like SoftBank and Tiger Global still licking their wounds. No one was writing checks for three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Menlo structured the bulk of deal, about $500 million worth, as a special purpose vehicle, or SPV — a one-off investment entity created to pool money from multiple sources for a single deal. Menlo also contributed $250 million from its own fund and contributions from Menlo insiders, sources told Forbes at the time, bringing the total round to $750 million.

Massive Fundings

Engram, an eight-month-old San Francisco startup that develops AI models that learn and reuse an organization’s internal knowledge to make enterprise agents faster and cheaper to run, announced that it has raised $98 million in funding from General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Factory, Modern, Amplify Partners, and Neo as well as angel investors including Assaf Rappaport, Andrej Karpathy, and Pieter Abbeel. More here.

Peregrine Technologies, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that develops data integration software for public safety agencies and local governments, raised a $250 million Series D round at a $6.8 billion valuation from previous investors Fifth Down Capital, Sequoia Capital, OG Venture Partners, Goldcrest Capital, XYZ Ventures, and Godfrey Capital. Fortune has more here.

Stark, a two-year-old Berlin startup that makes attack drones and other defense systems for European militaries, raised a $569.2 million round at a $4 billion post-money valuation from investors including Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, the NATO Innovation Fund, Project A, and Döpfner Capital. The Financial Times has more here.

xLight, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that hopes to eventually replace ASML's tin-plasma light source with a centralized particle accelerator, beaming hyper-powerful EUV light into multiple ASML scanners to double factory throughput, is reportedly in the market to raise a $350 million round co-led by Boardman Bay and Bain Capital. The Information has the scoop here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Attention, a five-year-old New York startup that automates CRM updates, analyzes customer interactions, identifies deal risks, and recommends next steps for sales teams managing pipelines, raised a $30 million Series B round led by RTP Global, with Linea Ventures as well as previous investors Aglae Ventures, Eniac, and Alven also participating. More here.

NaukNauk, a two-year-old virtual startup that uses AI to turn photos of toys and collectibles into animated videos, comics, and music videos for fandom communities, raised $20 million in venture funding from undisclosed investors. More here.

Niural, a four-year-old New York startup that runs global payroll, benefits, payments, and compliance operations for businesses across 150+ countries, automating tax calculations, money movement, and regulatory workflows, raised a $21 million Series A extension. Investors included FOG Ventures and NewView Capital. More here.

Ploy, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that deploys AI agents to design webpages, write marketing copy, run campaigns, and sync data to CRM for companies and agencies, raised a $27 million seed round co-led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Probook, a four-year-old New York startup that automates dispatch, scheduling, and customer communications for home service businesses like plumbing and HVAC companies to coordinate technicians and manage jobs efficiently, announced that it raised a $34 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $6 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Tech Funding News has more here.

Tetrix, a three-year-old New York startup that collects and structures private market fund data from documents to help institutional investors analyze portfolios, assess risk, and identify investment opportunities, raised a $15 million Series A round co-led by White Star Capital and Innovation Endeavors. More here.

VARM, a three-year-old Berlin startup that trains and deploys insulation workers to help homeowners plan, finance, and complete home insulation upgrades with standardized pricing and quality control, raised a $19.9 million Series A round. ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and GET Fund were the co-leads, with Aurum Impact as well as previous investors Emerge Partners, Pale Blue Dot, Emerge VC and noa also anteing up. EU-Startups has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Anchorbase, a six-month-old Calgary startup that aims to use AI to automate payment collection, reconciliation, reporting, and back-office workflows inside existing business software, raised a $2 million pre-seed round backed by Cambrian VC and TTV Capital. More here.

ChemT, a three-year-old Singapore startup that simulates and predicts cell behavior during biomanufacturing to help pharmaceutical and biotech companies improve yields, reduce timelines, and scale production, raised a $4 million seed round led by Wavemaker Ventures, with SEEDS, Wavemaker 360 Health, Draper University Ventures, and Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator also taking part. The company has raised a total of $5 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Fika Jobs, a one-year-old Stockholm startup that develops a video-first hiring platform where AI agents interview candidates and turn their responses into short-form profiles, raised a $4 million pre-seed round led by Luminar Ventures, with Alliance VC and King co-founders Sebastian Knutsson and Riccardo Zacconi also opting in. TechCrunch has more here.

H3 Zoom, an 11-year-old Singapore company that uses computer vision, drones, and workflow automation to help asset owners inspect buildings and infrastructure, detect defects, and produce standardized inspection reports, raised a $3.6 million Series A round led by JRE Ventures, with SGInnovate, M7 Holdings, AC S525, Moringa Ventures, and Lotus One Investment also contributing. More here.

HaloBraid, a four-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that develops a robotic hair-braiding assistant for professional stylists, raised a $7 million seed round led by Seven Seven Six, with AlleyCorp and Bling Capital also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Kyrok, a one-year-old Berlin startup that builds an AI system that sits on ERP systems to help pharmaceutical and chemical SMEs manage supply chain workflows and capture operational knowledge, raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Speedinvest and including Arve Capital. Tech.eu has more here.